Sunday, January 20, 2013

Until September

I streamed Until September this afternoon. This movie was originally released in 1984. It stars Karen Allen and French actor Thierry Lhermitte. I found myself tearing up at the end, but I have very mixed feelings about this movie because of the subject matter of adultery. Thierry plays the part of French banker Xavier de la Perouse. Karen plays the part of Mo Alexander. Mo is a horticulturalist from the States. She is escorting a group through Europe when she misses her flight in Paris. How Mo ends up missing her flight is the first ridiculous thing about this movie. First of all she stops to use a pay phone (remember those?) to call her sister to reminder her about something she had already left a note about. After the phone call Mo cannot find gate 7, yet everyone else seems to have found it without a problem. Mo finally finds gate 7 just in time to see the plane with all her baggage on it pulling out of the gate.

Mo tries to make arrangements to catch up with her group but fails. Mo is lucky enough to end up staying at a friend's beautiful Paris apartment that is just a few steps from the apartment of very handsome Xavier. Xavier's wife and two children are away for the summer until September. Mo is immediately attracted to Xavier. I cannot blame her for that. Xavier is handsome, sexy and very charming. Mo tells Xavier that he has the most beautiful eyes that she has ever seen. Xavier decides to make the move on Mo and asks her out to dinner. Xavier is expecting the dinner to end with the two of them in bed. Xavier is in a marriage of convenience for both him and his wife and is used to having mistresses on the side. Mo resists Xavier's advances at first, but then she decides to throw caution to the wind and ends up having a physical and emotional relationship with Xavier. After three weeks Mo is in love and starts to question Xavier about his marriage and mistresses. Mo begins to question Xavier about his dishonest lifestyle. This is what I don't get. Mo knew that Xavier was married when she decided to become intimate with him. This is a married man who had absolutely no problem screwing other women besides his wife as if it is a lifestyle that was perfectly alright as long as you are discrete about it.

Mo wants her relationship with Xavier to be different than the ones her had with his other mistresses. Mo wants Xavier to commit to her. What? Even if his marriage is one of convenience it still does not explain away his willingness to so easily cheat on his wife. I would never trust a married man to be faithful to me. If he cheated on his wife with me he could cheat on me as well.

Karen Allen

Thierry Lhermitte

There is quite a bit of nudity in this film but it is tastefully done. Well, at least in my opinion it is. Others may be offended. Personally, I was not really feeling the chemistry between Karen and Thierry, but both of them played their parts very well and seemed very comfortable;e with each other.

As I have already written the ending was tear jerker for me and the movie on a whole is disturbing on several levels. One thing that was good is that Thierry began to question being married for convenience. He did become emotionally involved in his relationship with Mo and began to realize that he was missing something more important in life.